


The Great Sea

by MegumitheGreat



Series: What I think would be in the next Kingdom Hearts [3]
Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Gen, Kingdom Hearts 3 spoilers, Moana (2016) References, Moana - Freeform, One Shot, What-If, one shot series, post-game spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-26
Updated: 2019-02-26
Packaged: 2019-11-06 01:47:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,631
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17930471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MegumitheGreat/pseuds/MegumitheGreat
Summary: In their search to bring Sora back, Riku and Mickey travel to the Great Sea.





	The Great Sea

**Author's Note:**

> I can understand why they didn't add Moana to KH3, BUT BOY AM I SALTY LIKE THE SEA THAT WE DIDN'T GET MOANA. That said, I went with a slightly more original story this time since KH3 did stick to the movie plots a little too much for my liking (Tangled, Frozen, Pirates). I don't think this one is super good, but uh...heeeeey, Nomura! I imagine some mechanics from Pirates in KH2 as well as revisits (even if those were literally more for padding than actual story) would work well as well as getting to sail like we do in KH3. I did see from a follower on Twitter that they would have preferred Moana over Pirates, but listen--now that we know they can do THAT with Pirates, Moana would be NO PROBLEM. I'd honestly shit myself if it was even like Tangled (and Tangled is damn beautiful). The Te Ka fight, I'm a little iffy how it would play out, but you can read what I have in mind. This fic also made me realize that I've ALWAYS been wrong about the language used in Moana, and I wish Tokelau was more popular so I could use basic vocabulary to make slightly more appealing names and implement a cool Heartless name for Te Ka. Lastly, I tried SO HARD not to let my fujoshi trash feels leak into this, but...it was inevitable and I apologize. But I do imagine that Riku would be pretty torn up, even to become a little OOC (because I'm bad at keeping composed characters composed when they're within reach of their goal but not quite there). Or I suppose it's because I'm comparing him to Kairi's static personality...idk, okay, I'm done rambling.
> 
> Please remember, do not be a dick in the comments.

Riku and Mickey approached a new world in the starry nebula. On the top half of the sphere, a lush island surrounded by water stood. On the opposite end of the world, earth and lava dripped like grime. It was certainly unsettling to see how the two sides were juxtaposed, and the silver-haired Keyblade wielder wasn’t even sure if they had any reason to be there. Would Sora have gone to this world? He knew he saw him in the Land of the Dead, and if that was the case—if he was really in the afterlife now—how would he exist in this world?

“Riku?” Mickey uttered.

“Are you sure he’s here?” Riku asked him. “I don’t want to waste time if he’s in trouble.” He couldn’t bring himself to say what he had seen.

“It can’t hurt to check, and besides,” Mickey said. He paused for a moment, pointing at the lava. “I don’t like the look of that.”

Riku was confused somewhat. It wasn’t their job to go around fixing the worlds’ problems, but he had to wonder if it was strange for a world to be covered in fire like that. Then he saw what Mickey had meant. The lush island was slowly turning brown with death.

“That world…is dying…?” he said, unable to believe his eyes. “Mickey, let’s go!”

“Right!”

Their gummi ship steered closer to the world.

Meanwhile, on this new world, a young Polynesian village chief and her people landed on an island with small shelters and boats. She smiled; after a long voyage, they had returned to their home called Motonui. But the girl sensed something was wrong.

“What’s wrong with the island?” the girl asked. She scooped up a handful of sand. Normally, the grains would fall gently from her fingers and shine like silver dust, but now they the suck together like clay. The coconut trees had strange branches with little bulbs on them. One of the men only touched it, and it went crashing down into the canopy behind it. “But Maui and I replaced the heart. Why is this happening?”

“Chief Moana!” a couple villagers called to her. They brought seemingly okay fruit and fish traps made of wood. “Look!” When they cut open the fruit, sludge poured out. The fish in the trap were dead and rotting. “This is different from before. Back when Maui stole the heart of Te Fiti, the fruit had turned to dust and the fish had simply swum away from the island.”

“Did Maui steal the heart again?” a woman asked.

“No, he wouldn’t,” Moana said. She looked out to the sea. “I traveled with him. We fought together to bring the heart back. He would not go back and steal it. Someone else must have done it.”

She placed her hands on the crown of thatch and shell on her head. She took it off, and when she approached her parents that day, she gave them the crown. Moana told them that she planned to sail out once again to figure out why the island was suffering again. Her father and the former chief moved to stop her from leaving, but her mother discouraged him.

“She saved our people before, she can do it again,” her mother said with a smile.

“But this is a more dangerous threat!” her father argued.

“And I’m much stronger than I was before,” Moana rebutted. “I am going to sail and find the source of this…this darkness.”

That night, Moana set out to sea on one of the boats that her ancestors had built a millennium ago. She knew it was going to be dangerous, and she hoped that she could find Maui so he could help her.

Somewhere in the same ocean, Riku and Mickey drifted on a small raft. Riku found himself wearing a long grass skirt. Around his biceps and calves were more grass skirts. He wore heavy wooden beads and a grass crown. Mickey simply wore a grass skirt with canvas shoes. They had been drifting at sea for some time, and Riku couldn’t help but remember his days of innocence on the Destiny Islands, and he was sure that Sora and Kairi would have felt the same. He entertained the thought of getting a souvenir for them if they found land.

The sun beat down on them relentlessly, and as Riku sat up on the raft, he saw something in the distance. It was rushing towards them. It drew closer until he realized that it was a massive wave.

“Mickey, time to get up!” Riku panicked. “A wave is headed for us!”

“Quick, row this way!” Mickey said. He grabbed an oar, but as he turned to the edge of the raft, he realized the light glittering on their skin. The wave had stopped over them. A boat was on top of it. “It stopped.”

The water lifted their raft from below as if it were human. Riku braced himself in case it was to fall, but then he met the diligent eyes of a young Polynesian girl with long black hair and dressed in pink and thatch.

“Who are you?” she asked.

“My name is Riku,” the Keyblade wielder replied.

“And I’m Mickey Mouse,” the king answered.

“And you are?”

“I am Moana of Motonui,” the girl responded. She put her finger to her lip in thought. “Are you lost? Or in the middle of something?” She crossed her arms and smirked. “Or were you busy…stealing the heart of Te Fiti?!”

“What?” Riku blurted out.

“Heart?” Mickey gasped.

The water shook what would have been its head. Moana gave it a puzzled look. “What do you mean, ‘It’s not them’? We’re miles and miles beyond the reef, and these two are the only ones we’ve seen.”

Riku asked her to explain herself. She was unsure at first, but the water tilted the raft over the boat, forcing the outsiders to fall before her. Then it threw their raft away. With no choice in the matter, she told them that the heart of Te Fiti had been stolen a thousand years ago. Not too long after finding Maui and restoring it, she and her people had sailed beyond the reef. When they returned, they noticed that the island was poisoned again.

Mickey and Riku knew that an adversary had caused this problem. The original Organization XIII and the new Organization XIII had both been defeated. Xehanort had been returned to the light with a kindred spirit. While Yen Sid had no idea who the new threat could be, it was clear that it had to be someone connected to the Organization. Upon remembering that Sora had mentioned before they were to fight at the Keyblade Graveyard, they had been searching for the new Princesses of Heart. Whoever Te Fiti was, she had to be one of them.

“We’re going to help you,” Riku told her.

“You…will? But why?” Moana asked him.

He placed his hand over his heart. “Someone very important to me would do it, and I think if we help you, we can find him.”

“Okay, great! Now, before we can go to Te Fiti, we need to find Maui.”

“Who’s that?” Mickey asked her.

“He’s the demigod that stole Te Fiti’s heart before. He made up for it by helping me get to Her. He’s got a lot of magic power, so I have no doubt he can help us.”

Riku and Mickey had faith in her, and the three rode together on the boat carried by the ocean. They travelled to a nearby island, and when they set foot, Heartless appeared. Moana let out a scream before smacking one with her oar.

“What are these things?! No, are they the ones that stole the heart?” she questioned.

“Well, they definitely go after hearts,” Mickey said. “Moana, be careful. These are Heartless. They’re monsters that go after the light in people’s hearts, and they are drawn to darkness.” He summoned his Keyblade.

Riku summoned his as well. “I don’t think that oar is going to do much for you,” he said.

“I’m not alone. I’ve got the ocean on my side.”

Spinning the oar on her palm, a massive amount of water from the ocean shot out from the shore and washed the Heartless away. Of course, there was more than one wave of the creatures of darkness, but they didn’t have time to waste on them. Riku and Mickey dashed towards them, slashing and defeating them one by one. When they had all been defeated, they regrouped.

If there were Heartless on every island on the way to where Te Fiti was, they had their work cut out for them. It was imperative that they found Maui before too long. They scoured that island and came up empty. They sailed to the next one, fought the Heartless, and again found nothing. They went to each island they could until they came to one just at an edge of the world where there was an incredibly tall tower surrounded by sharp rocks.

Moana squinted at it with the sunlight in her eyes. “Lalotai?” she mumbled. “Is Maui here? But why would he be? We got the hook, unless…oh no.”

“‘Oh no’?” Riku repeated.

“What’s wrong?” Mickey asked her.

“Maui’s got to be in Lalotai, the Realm of Monsters,” Moana said more to herself than to her new friends. “Did Tamatoa kidnap him? Or he stole his hook.”

“Moana?” Mickey mentioned.

“But how are we going to get in? We need something big and heavy to open the portal.”

“Anytime you want to fill us in,” Riku reminded her.

She spun around. “You…don’t know about Lalotai? But everyone knows about Lalotai. It’s, like, _the_ Realm of Monsters?”

Riku and Mickey exchanged looks before affirming that they didn’t know about it. They came from a different sea that had no such thing. Somewhat frustrated, the village chief quickly explained that it was a place that humans were technically not allowed to enter because they weren’t strong enough to open the portal. Riku asked her what was needed.

“First, you need someone with enough weight to pop through the entrance. And you have to the traditional haka before you can do that. Also, you kind of have to be a demigod or a full god.”

Riku crossed his arms in thought. “Mickey, do you think we can get it open?” he asked his royal friend.

“Of course,” Mickey happily said. He turned to Moana. “With our Keyblades, we can open almost any door. Why don’t we give it a try?”

Moana was clearly unsure if it was going to work. She asked the ocean to stop the boat next to the rocky shores of the pillar leading to Lalotai. The three of them climbed the side of the pillar to the top, where Riku and Mickey found a stone gate with a monster’s mouth carved into it. Riku stood on the edge, looking at the mouth with determination. He summoned his Keyblade, and after leaping into the air, he shot a thin beam of light into it. The faint shape of a keyhole was outlined in light. In just a minute, the mouth turned. The teeth opened to reveal a cosmic portal leading down into the depths of a colorful world.

“You really did open it…” Moana said in awe. She reminded herself that they had to go fast before the portal closed.

Moana jumped first, then Mickey, then Riku. As they fell down the vibrant hole into sea water then into ectoplasm, the silver-haired wielder’s mind wandered to what Sora would think about this place. He had previously gone to a world that turned him into a monster and one before that had turned him into a little vampire child. Of course, this realm was within the confines of a world that had an established appearance for outsiders; Sora would no doubt be dressed like him. They neared the bottom now, and the three of them quickly got into position to brace for landing.

While Riku and Mickey landed without a problem, Moana ended up falling on her rear. She grumbled that she still couldn’t stick the landing then led them to Tamatoa’s lair. Tamatoa was a giant crab covered in gold and treasure. He had stolen Maui’s hook before, and after they got it back, he had been left flipped over on his back unable to move. Rounding the corner, she immediately noticed that he was nowhere to be found outside of his sparkling cave. But his voice, lilting and singsong, echoed from it.

“Oy, Maui, you little semi-demi-mini-god,” he laughed. “How does it feel to be right back in my meaty claws?”

“Well, it’s definitely something,” Maui replied. Riku, Moana, and Mickey peeked into the lair to find a tall yet stocky man tied up and hanging upside. The end of the rope was in the pincers of the giant crab. “Look, could you just maybe let me go? One thousand years and I’m finally free of that horrid little rock heart; I’ve got better things to do than to hang around.”

“Ooh, that was a good one.”

“How do we get him down?” Riku whispered.

“We have to get him to talk about himself,” Moana whispered back.

“But he’s holding Maui in his claw,” Mickey noticed.

“Um…oh, how about shining that key at him? He likes shiny things.”

“What?” Riku questioned. He thought she must had been referring to the strange ray of light that opened the portal to Lalotai, but even then, he couldn’t begin to understand what she was suggesting.

“Just give him that key and we can rescue Maui!”

He opened his mouth to deny that idea until he remembered the time when he and Sora first fought over the Keyblade. If he threw his Keyblade out into the open and made sure that it caught Tamatoa’s eye, he could simply summon it back to his hand. He agreed to the plan.

Riku silently stepped into the treasure cave with his Keyblade in hand. Mickey and Moana snuck around along the wall behind Tamatoa. Maui was in the perfect position to see them while the giant crab continued to ramble on about some topic or other. The trapped demigod cocked an eyebrow.

“What? What are you staring at?” Tamatoa asked him as he slowly began to scuttle around.

“You got something in your teeth,” Maui quickly said. “Gross, is that…is that shrimp?”

“What?”

“Nope, that’s definitely tuna.”

The crab gasped. “You mean I’ve been holding you here this whole time with some unsightly rubbish in my teeth?”

Riku was in position to throw his lure out from a heap of gold. Mickey and Moana were behind another rock. The village chief peeked out, holding up her hand. Tamatoa began to turn again, and she signaled him to toss the Keyblade out. When the metal fell against the gold coins, they made a sweet jingling sound that immediately caught Tamatoa’s attention.

“Eh-llo? What have we here?” he said. He dropped Maui just as fast to pick up the Keyblade. “How strange. A car key? We’re in the middle of a monster realm in the middle of the ocean. There are no cars here. Unless…ooh, did my mail-in sweepstakes entry actually win? Is this the key to my new vehicle?”

Mickey cut the rope binding Maui. After he was safe, Moana again signaled Riku to take back his weapon. But, as luck would have it, as soon as he did, Tamatoa caught on to the trick.

“Oh, how dare you!” he grumbled. “I thought I’d won! And…you’re human. What’s another human doing down here? Wait a second…”

He jumped up, startling them all and dashing any hope to escape without having to fight him off. “You little rascals think you can pull another one over me, eh? I may not be able to see perfectly well, but I know when I have a few mice scurrying about.”

“At this rate, we’ll have to force our way out of here,” Mickey determined.

“We can take him,” Riku smirked. “He’s just a crab.” He raised his Keyblade over his head into his battle stance.

Tamatoa’s eyes looked at each other before the monster crab grinned nastily at him. Maui placed a hand on his shoulder. “See, here’s the thing—he’s not _just_ a crab.”

“You’re right!” Tamatoa cackled. “A little birdie told me that I can get a lot more power if I just…” All light in the cave vanished, and fluorescent markings glowed on his face. “Turn down the lights.”

A tiny Heartless appeared on the crab’s back; it was the creature that had eaten all the light. Their eyes adjusting to the darkness, Riku and his comrades stood huddled in the center of the cave together. The markings on Tamatoa vanished. To find him, they would need to literally take a shot in the dark.

“Well, I’ll give you kudos for actually rescuing me,” Maui sighed. “But now we have a bigger problem. Look alive!”

A giant spear-like leg came down before Moana while another nearly hit Mickey. Riku broke formation, casting Thundaga in the darkness to find the Heartless that had eaten the light. But even with magical light, he couldn’t see anything.

“You puny intruders seem to be having some trouble,” Tamatoa mocked them. He grabbed them up—Mickey and Riku in one claw and Moana and Maui in the other. “How about we just skip to the part where I eat you all?”

Riku managed to get his hand free, firing a beam of light up at the ceiling where he saw two glowing little yellow eyes. The beam of light instantly destroyed the Heartless, and all of the light trapped within it had been released. Everyone shielded their eyes, but Tamatoa was dazzled. Maui leapt into the air. In one drop, he knocked out the crab.

“Let’s go before he wakes up!” Moana said.

She led them out of the cave and back to the portal that would escort them back to the realm of humans.

Maui was the first to get onto the boat. He plopped down on one end, lifting the opposite end up out of the water and making it impossible for Riku, Mickey, and Moana to board. “I can’t believe I had to be rescued after all this time,” he pouted.

Moana and Riku tried to pull the boat back down. “How did you get caught in the first place?” Moana asked her friend. “You’re Maui, the greatest demigod that ever lived.”

“I fell into a trap, obviously. You didn’t notice that I didn’t have my hook, or that Tamatoa of all monsters tied me up and swung me around?”

Riku helped Mickey onto the boat after they finally got it leveled down. “What’s this about a hook?” he asked them. Maui briefly explained that his hook was what granted him power. He had lost it once, and now he had lost it again. He recalled a big guy with pointy ears and a witch dressed in black.

“It must have been Pete and Maleficent,” Mickey said. “We have to get the hook back.”

“Yeah, good luck with that,” Maui huffed. “They vanished into some weird darkness before Tamatoa caught me. No idea where they went.”

Riku turned back to Moana. She had sailed out to look for the heart of Te Fiti. For someone to covet a heart that much, he figured that She must be a Princess of Heart for sure. Maui furrowed his eyebrow.

“Uh, Te Fiti ain’t a princess,” he revealed. “She’s kind of a goddess that exists as island. When I stole Her heart—for _humans_ —She turned into this lava monster named Te Ka. Moana restored Her heart, and She went back to normal.” He gave Moana a look. “Wait, so it’s been stolen again?”

“I think so,” Moana replied. “My people are without food. If we don’t hurry, they won’t be able to make it.”

Riku and Mickey had no hesitation in reaffirming that they would help them. Moana thanked them, sailing out from the island leading into Lalotai. They sailed again to different islands in search of Maui’s hook and the heart, battling Heartless and looking for clues. It was then that Mickey and Riku got to see just how strong the demigod was even with his handicap. Disgruntled that he didn’t have his hook, he simply flicked Heartless miles into the seawater before they disappeared into oblivion. At first, they were somewhat terrified that he might pelt one of their enemies into them by accident, but Maui didn’t seem at all interested in fighting. When the last Heartless—a Large Body—encroached on him, he groaned then punched it.

“Can we just find the hook already?” Maui whined. “Looking through all these islands isn’t really getting us anywhere, and these Heartless things are really annoying. Almost like they’re popping up on purpose when we land…like some video game thing.”

Moana thought long and hard. It’s true, they were only wasting time scouring each island they came across. “Should we just head to Te Fiti then?” she asked.

“I think that would be the best course of action,” Mickey agreed. “After all, we at least have an idea that someone’s stolen the heart of Te Fiti. Maybe the same person who stole the heart also stole Maui’s hook.”

Riku thought, too. He had seen Sora in the Land of the Dead—could he also be there as well? Could he be the one…?

“Sora wouldn’t do that, though,” he said aloud. Moana, Maui, and Mickey looked at him. His face turned a light pink.

“Aw, Riku, were you thinking that Sora might have done all this?” Mickey gently asked. He smiled at him. “Don’t worry. As long as you believe in him, everything will be okay.”

“Sora?” Moana mentioned.

“He’s someone really important to me,” Riku admitted. He placed his hand over his heart like he did before. “He went missing, so we’ve started a journey to find him. All of our friends miss him, but…” He fell silent, rightlfully wary of saying too much. He missed him the most.

“That settles it; we’re heading for Te Fiti. We need to find out what’s happened, and if we’re lucky, maybe we can find the hook and Sora.” She had a strong look in her eyes—the strength of her heart and her people. “Alright, Maui, let’s get going!”

“You’re the one sailing this ship,” Maui replied. Moana rolled her eyes. “Also, we’re still on this island, so I don’t know how you plan on sailing anything.”

“Okay, point made.”

Riku couldn’t help but laugh. They boarded Moana’s boat, sailing as far as opposite edge of the sea to Te Fiti.

It was a long voyage, and days passed. Riku and Moana shared each other’s islander knowledge, catching fish to eat and cooking it when they landed on islands every now and then. They had eventually come to a point where there were no islands. The sky and sea met at the horizon, the nighttime stars dancing overhead. They watched them, Moana using her hand to measure how much farther they had to go to reach Te Fiti.

Suddenly, a green fireball came hurtling towards the boat; Riku knew that dark magic better than anyone. Moana successfully maneuvered the boat out of the way stopping it just short of a tall rock standing out of the water.

“I see that you foolish knaves have decided to follow me here,” a haughty voice echoed. In a plume of dark smoke, the evil fairy Maleficent appeared. Beside her, Pete smirked. “Have you come for the heart of this world?”

“Maleficent!” Mickey called.

“You’re back to targeting worlds’ hearts, it seems,” Riku growled.

“You seem to still be stuck in the past, but I suppose you are not entirely incorrect.”

“Yo, who’s this gothic broad?” Maui asked.

“An old witch with a lust for power,” Riku explained.

“You always did have that nasty attitude, but no matter,” Maleficent said with grandiosity. “You’ve actually already done what I needed you to do.” She lifted her scepter, and Heartless surrounded the boat. Riku and Mickey defeated a few of them while Maui took the oar that Moana had been using to cut down the numbers as well. “You’ve brought me one of the new Princesses of Heart!”

The Heartless grabbed Moana from the boat despite the attempts to get rid of them. Moana wiggled her way out of their grasp, and the ocean tried to keep her safe.

“Now, now!” Pete guffawed. “That ain’t no way to appease Te Fiti. Or should I say, Te Ka?”

The lumbering cat-like lackey lifted his hand to show that he was holding the heart that Moana and Maui had tried so hard to return. Far in the distance, a lava monster with the figure of a woman towered above everything else. She let out a raspy wail.

“How did they get the heart?!” Maui gasped.

“Let me go!” Moana snarled at the Heartless. She whistled for the ocean to strike them down, but it couldn’t reach high enough. “I said, let go!”

“What are you planning on doing?!” Riku questioned the evil fairy.

“Just as I did one year ago, I intend to reveal the Final Keyhole using the Princesses of Heart. Those buffoons in that poor excuse for an evil organization have already revealed three others, and one still has her power,” Maleficent said.

“And accomplish what?” Riku egged on.

“Riku, be careful; we can’t discuss these matters here,” Mickey warned him.

“Sora already defeated her once. We can take her on in his stead.”

“You need to calm down and think. Right now, we have to save Moana.”

“I got it!” Maui said.

He jumped up as high as he could, grabbing Moana’s ankle and wrenching her out of the Heartless’ grasp.

Riku quickly shot a few dark fireballs at them. He aimed his Keyblade at Maleficent again. She waved her hand, and a Heartless the size of a shark snapped the heart of Te Fiti from Pete’s hand.

“Oh no!” Mickey cried out.

“‘Oh no’ is right! Bwa-ha-ha! Have fun, Your Majesty!” Pete mockingly said before he and Maleficent disappeared.

Moana stood at the front of her boat. Her heart broke seeing Te Fiti as an angry monster again. She, however, didn’t know how to get the heart back from the Heartless. That was when Riku stepped up to the edge.

“I’ll go after the Heartless,” he volunteered. “Mickey, stay on the boat to help them escape Te Ka.”

“I’m going, too,” Maui said. “I may not have my hook, but I’m not about to just sit by and do nothing.”

Riku nodded, and the two dove into the water after the shark Heartless. With them in the water, Moana took hold of the ropes of her boat. Mickey was in charge of deflecting—as best as he could—any fireballs coming from the monster.

Riku and Maui gave chase to the Heartless, the former smacking it with his Keyblade when he got close enough. The demigod grabbed onto its tail, swinging it around in the water before tossing it up for the ocean to attack. Riku leapt up to hit the Heartless a few more times until it vanished, yielding to him the tiny green stone. He held it close to his chest for fear of losing it in the depths of the abyss below.

The ocean, knowing now that Riku and Maui had accomplished their mission, grabbed them both and shot them past the trench. Moana and Mickey still struggled to get past Te Ka, though. While the village chief managed to squeeze through the trench, she couldn’t just leave the monster like that.

They regrouped with Riku and Maui, and when the silver-haired Keyblade wielder showed them the spoils of their victory, he noticed that it beat faintly in his hand.

“How do we put it back?” he asked Moana.

“Well, the last time I just talked to her, but whatever that witch did, Te Ka won’t listen,” Moana explained.

“And I still don’t have my hook, so fighting is going to be a problem,” Maui reminded them.

“Mickey, are you with me?” Riku asked.

“You betcha!” Mickey responded.

“We’ll go put the heart back.”

“You’re not going there alone; Te Ka will kill you!” Moana objected.

“Moana…” Riku started. There had to be a reason that Maleficent wanted both her and the heart. “I think…you should put the heart back. You share a connection to Te Fiti, right? We’ll back you up.”

Moana steeled herself. She just had to get the heart back into the spiral on Te Ka’s chest. She had commanded the ocean once to part so the monster could come to her, but now that She was a raging beast, she couldn’t take that risk.

Riku and Mickey went ahead, freezing a trail of the ocean to get to Te Ka as quickly as possibly to distract Her. They hopped up as far as they could to weaken her so she couldn’t attack Moana. Maui and the ocean worked together to make a path for the village chief. Te Ka saw this, and She swatted Riku and Mickey out of the sky before launching a fireball at them.

“Look out!” Mickey alerted them.

Before the fireball hit, a dart of ice froze it solid. Riku and Mickey were taken aback. Chestnut-brown spikes and ruby red plaid stood on a rock between the two parties. His Kindgom Key reflected the orange light of the fire coming from Te Ka’s head. 

“Sora!” Riku happily said. But his friend didn’t look at him. He hurried to the monster, and while he provided his assistance, he kept his distance from them.

Three Keyblade wielders against Te Ka made for a much easier fight. Moana was at the foot of the monster by the time they had knocked Her around enough to make Her submit. She, hopeful that the heart would restore Her, held the heart up.

“Remember who you are, Te Fiti!” she pleaded with the monster. “You aren’t like this. You are Te Fiti!”

The monster shrieked as the stone glowed green. Sora stepped away, but he didn’t go unnoticed. Riku and Mickey went after him.

“Sora, I’ve finally found you,” Riku said with relief. He tried to look him in the eye, but his friend kept turning away. “Sora?”

“What’s wrong?” Mickey asked him.

“I…I need to go,” Sora quietly said. He started to run off.

Riku grabbed his wrist immediately. “Why? We’ve been looking everywhere for you. Everyone’s worried; I’m worried. Come back home with us.”

“I can’t.”

Riku didn’t understand what he was hearing, but he let go of him. Even though Sora wouldn’t look at him, he saw a glimpse of gold in his eye.

“Talk to me.”

“No, Riku, I really can’t. I’m not even supposed to be here. I’m already disobeying my orders.”

“Orders? Orders for what? Sora!”

“Riku, wait,” Mickey suddenly said.

Sora giggled sadly. “You were always so reckless,” he said. “I’m really sorry. I have to go. If I spend too much time here, I…I’ll be erased.”

Again, Riku didn’t understand. He watched as his friend hurriedly left behind a rock before returning to Maui and Moana. He hadn’t even noticed that the parched land and fire had been washed away with lush greenery. Te Fiti, the Goddess of Life, smiled down at them. When She saw Riku, She thanked him by touching his head gently with a finger. She sensed his sorrow, prompting her to offer something that nearly brought a tear to his eye.

“What kind of fruit is that?” Moana asked.

Riku picked up a star-shaped fruit with large leaves. He couldn’t help but smile at the memory it brought to him. Even though Sora had shared one with Kairi, and even though he had given him one as a trophy after a bet; Riku hoped with all his heart that the three of them could share one together. He hoped that he could share one with Sora so that they would never be separated again like they had been for a year.

“Wow, okay, this is awkward,” Maui said. “I don’t know what’s going on, but maybe we should get back to Motonui.”

“What about your hook?” Mickey asked.

Te Fiti raised a finger, as if to show She recalled seeing it somewhere. With a flurry of flower petals, she made a model of someone in a hooded black coat. Riku and Mickey knew now that Organization XIII was involved. But it still didn’t answer the question of why Maleficent was there. Why was Sora there? And the gold in his eyes…Riku shuddered at the thought.

“He can’t be,” he whispered this time so no one could hear him. He turned to Mickey. “We should probably get going.”

“W-Wait!” Moana interrupted. “How will you get anywhere? You don’t have a boat!”

“Don’t worry! We’ll figure a way out!” Mickey reassured. Te Fiti winked at him; She knew, but She would never tell.

Moana and Maui boarded their boat. Waving goodbye as they sailed away, they let them know that they had to come back to Motonui so they could repay them. Riku promised that they would be back to help find Maui’s hook. Soon after, the boat disappeared over the horizon. Te Fiti had gone dormant. But Riku’s heart was far more troubled now that he had met Sora for such a short time.

**Author's Note:**

> 100% want Sora, who had somehow survived being corrupted by darkness despite ALL of the crap that he goes through, to be evil in the next arc. PLEASE NOMURA. LET US HAVE THAT DELICIOUS ANGST.


End file.
